Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>]

Great stuff. I located a link for it and I'll pass it on to another list I do.
http://www.foodfirst.org/en/node/2989


paul tradingpost@lobo.net


*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 7/8/2010 at 5:45 PM Tommy Tolson wrote:

>Right to Food: "Agroecology outperforms large-scale industrial farming
>for global food security," says UN expert
>
>BRUSSELS (22 June 2010) -- "Governments and international agencies
>urgently need to boost ecological farming techniques to increase food
>production and save the climate," said UN Special Rapporteur on the
>Right to Food, Olivier De Schutter, while presenting the findings at an
>international meeting on agroecology held in Brussels on 21 and 22 June.
>
>Along with 25 of the world's most renowned experts on agroecology, the
>UN expert urged the international community to re-think current
>agricultural policies and build on the potential of agroecology.
>
>"One year ago, Heads of States at the G20 gathering in Italy committed
>to mobilizing $22 billion over a period of three years to improve global
>food security. This was welcome news, but the most pressing issue
>regarding reinvestment in agriculture is not how much, but how," Olivier
>De Schutter said .
>
>"Today, most efforts are made towards large-scale investments in land --
>including many instances of land grabbing -- and towards a 'Green
>Revolution' model to boost food production: improved seeds, chemical
>fertilisers and machines," the Special Rapporteur remarked. "But scant
>attention has been paid to agroecological methods that have been shown
>to improve food production and farmers' incomes, while at the same time
>protecting the soil, water, and climate."
>
>The widest study ever conducted on agroecological approaches (Jules
>Pretty, Essex University, UK) covered 286 projects in 57 developing
>countries, representing a total surface of 37 million hectares: the
>average crop yield gain was 79%. Concrete examples of 'agroecological
>success stories' abound in Africa.
>
>In Tanzania, the Western provinces of Shinyanga and Tabora used to be
>known as the 'Desert of Tanzania'. However, the use of agroforestry
>techniques and participatory processes allowed some 350,000 hectares of
>land to be rehabilitated in two decades. Profits per household rose by
>as much as USD 500 a year. Similar techniques are used in Malawi, where
>some 100,000 smallholders in 2005 benefited to some degree from the use
>of fertilizer trees.
>"With more than a billion hungry people on the planet, and the climate
>disruptions ahead of us, we must rapidly scale up these sustainable
>techniques," De Schutter said. "Even if it makes the task more complex,
>we have to find a way of addressing global hunger, climate change, and
>the depletion of natural resources, all at the same time. Anything short
>of this would be an exercise in futility."
>The experts gathering in Brussels identified the policies that could
>develop agroecological approaches to the scale needed to feed the world
>in 2050. They based their work on the experiences of countries that have
>pro-agroecology policies -- such as Cuba or Brazil -- as well as on the
>successful experiences from international research centres such as the
>World Agroforestry Center in Nairobi, and on the programmes of La Via
>Campesina, the transnational peasant movement, which runs agroecology
>training programmes.
>"We can scale up these sustainable models of agriculture, and ensure
>that they work for the benefit of the poorest farmers. What is needed
>now is political will to move from successful pilot projects to
>nation-wide policies," the UN Special Rapporteur said. In conclusion, he
>announced that he would ask the Committee on World Food Security -- what
>should become in time the 'Security Council' for food security -- to
>work during its October session on the policy levers to scale up
>agroecology. "This is the best option we have today. We can't afford not
>to use it."
>
>(*) The international seminar "The contribution of agroecological
>approaches to meet 2050 global food needs" was held in Brussels on 21
>and 22 June. Convened under the auspices of the mandate of the UN
>Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Prof. Olivier De Schutter, it
>brought together agroecology experts, decision makers at national and
>international levels, and representatives of farmer organizations.
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>Livingontheland mailing list
>Livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
>http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/livingontheland